@larryi, I am interested in what works best for us, the customers, and less what works best for the dealers. As long as we as customers accept the status quo, there will be no change. To be clear, I think the manufacturers need to shoulder much of the financial risk, not the dealers. For one thing, what is the manufacturer cost on a $5K cart? I would hazard less than half that.
If I were, say Koetsu, I would provide dealers in major centers such as NY, LA, and Chicago with demos of their pricier cartridges. But, the customer would need to pay the FULL PRICE of the cart as a security deposit. I highly doubt a guy would shell out $15K so he could have a shootout he could blog about. If I was trying out a $5K cart, I would happily pay a hundred bucks (2% of the potential purchase price) to have it installed by an approved tech. Sure, this isn’t going to work for all people, only those in the major centers, but I bet that captures a good chunk of the potential buyers.
If a manufacturer isn’t willing to provide this service I question how much it REALLY cares about customer satisfaction.